Brittany Knows Best
by XiooongMaaao
Summary: Everything always starts with Brittany... Femslash warning. Rachel/Quinn and a very distinct possibility of more...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the glee characters. That right belongs to Fox.

A/N: First fanfic! Constructive criticism most welcomed. English is my second language, unfortunately. I'm using this as a writing exercise to practice my grammar. :) Unbeta-ed!

It always starts with Brittany.

"San." Brittany tugged gently at Santana's uniform and diverted her attention away the mirror in her locker. The latina slammed her locker door shut, then crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah. Britt?" She said grumpily, though she kept her voice low so as to not upset the blonde.

"Look." The tall blonde pointed at the small mousey brunette of a girl trying but failing to maneuver herself through the crowded hall way. Like sharks to a wounded seal, jocks, cheerios and anyone with any remote status on the high school social totem pole seem to have homed in on the small girl, determined to make her passage through the hall ways near impossible.

Santana merely scoffed at the idiocy that is her fellow high school students. Amateurs.

"Midget needs to learn how to fend for herself."

Its true, if the girl continues to let others walk all over her, she'll never survive high school.

And thats that. Santana thought, nodding sagely to herself.

Santana noticed a slight commotion from the corner of her eyes and caught sight of the familiar blonde hair. She glanced back to see the third member of their trio walking up to them. With her Cheerio skirt swishing to the subtle swing of her hips, Quinn Fabray was a sight to behold. Santana smirked as students parted in awe and made way for the head cheerleader. The summer away didn't seem to quell the fascination the student body had with blonde. In fact, Santana frown puzzlingly, it seems like it had only grown exponentially.

It wasn't easy for the three to make it to the top of social hierarchy, the latina reflects back to their freshman year, but once they were there they have proved to be inviolable. Simply put, Santana is a bitch. She and her ability to place fear in the heart of her fellow students had ensure her place at the top. Quinn is the fiery Latina's opposite in almost every way, cold and aloof. Her illusiveness gives her an air of mystery that seems to fascinates some and attract others to her all the while keeping them at a safe distance away. Brittany is the most approachable of them all, open and friendly, her warm and lovable personality makes it hard for anyone to dislike her. Especially since the blonde is attached to the hip to the head bitch.

They were an impenetrable force, Mckinley never knew what hit them.

Quinn came to a stop besides her fellow blonde to see what had captured her friends' attention. Brittany gasped when the small girl was once again shoved against the lockers, this time her books fell from her hands and clattered to the floor. Laughter rang through out the hallway.

"But she's _so_ little!" She whined and tugged at Quinn's top. Quinn cringes at the sound, and her eyes found the Latina's. They both knew what that means.

Brittany has a tendency to find strays wherever she goes and conveniently enough for the tender hearted dancer, no one seems to be able to say no to her. First it was Betsy, a cow that belong to Brittany's next door neighbor, who was bound for the slaughter house. Then it was the two rowdy mutts from the humane society that no one wanted to adopt. Or last year when Brittany found an injured duck on the side of the pond but her Mom had set a cap to the amount of animals allowed to live at her house. Now Cat, the duck, happily limps around Santana's backyard and cheerily quacks at the dancer whenever the Blonde comes over and visit.

After a lot of glaring and frantic hand gesturing (generally on the part of the brunette), the head cheerleader and her co-captain silently communicated over the pouting blonde's head. Defeated, Santana threw her hands up in exasperation before stalking towards the small girl.

After waiting a beat, Brittany disappeared towards the direction of the classrooms.

The crowd parted quickly to avoid the Latina's wrath, with the exception of two jocks who had failed to notice the fiery Cheerio.

They hovered around the lockers near the small girl, with slushies in hand and their obvious target in mind.

Once Santana was in reasonable distance from the small girl, Quinn made her move. She breezes past the two jocks, hands moving quickly to propel the two Slushies upwards, away from its intended target and straight into their shocked faces. Without breaking her stride, she fell in steps with Brittany, who held out Quinn's textbooks for her and the two cheerleaders left the unsuspecting bullies in their wake. Mocking laughter broke out as the jocks stare at the two cheerleaders in shock, each covered in grape and lime flavored icy respectively.

Quinn remains impassive, an arched eyebrow firmly in place while Brittany fights to keep a blinding smile from bursting forth. They rounded a corner and Santana had appeared beside them, with the small, but chatty girl in tow. Once the crowd's attention had been diverted by the head cheerleader and her well orchestrated move, Santana had quickly grabbed ahold of the small girl and dragged her away from the distracted crowd.

"I must request that you unhand me at once! There are simply no reasons for-"

"Can it. Shrimp." Santana Snapped.

The girl appeared annoyed by the interruption until she noticed the two blondes. Brittany was smiling warmly at the small girl while Quinn merely appeared disinterested. The small girl cleared her throat and took a moment to compose herself. She looked down for a second and when she looked back up she had a maniacal gleam in her eyes. Suddenly she produced a deck of notecards seemingly out of thin air and began reading it in an enthusiastic manner.

"Greetings potential friends! My name is Rachel Barbara Berry, an aspiring broadway star, destined for spotlight. Today begins my first day as a freshman in Mckinley high. I very much look forward to a year of learning from the fine educators of Mckinley high. I would hereby like to extend a hand of friendship towards you. I believe you would find my friendship to be nothing but beneficial for your own educational progress."

If possible Brittany's smile seems to be brighter. Quinn seems to have stop the examination of her nails and found interest elsewhere. Santana's left eye had began to twitch in a manner that reminded Rachel of her crazy uncle Charles at the very Berry Christmas family gathering last year, right before he was committed in a mental health hospital.

"Can we keep her?" Brittany clapped her hands together in glee, while bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Ah hell no." Santana said, quickly dragging the blonde away before she say something they'd all regret.

"Bye Quinn! Bye Rachel!" Brittany waves enthusiastically before she disappears down the hall way with Santana.

Rachel stared dejectedly after the two Cheerios before turning to find a certain blonde head cheerleader had snuck up besides her and is currently invading her personal bubble, staring at her. The blonde tilts her head slightly to her right, as if she was trying to take in Rachel from a different angle. Her gaze, while intense was not mean-spirited. As the matter of fact, the blonde seems amused.

"Oh!" The small brunette jumped at the blonde's unexpected proximity. "I apologize, uh Quinn was it? I didn't realize you were so close! I don't suppose you would like consider my proposal of friendship. I believe you'll find my company most tolerable...uh..my fathers have indicated ..such.." Rachel trailed off and her confidence began to waver under the blonde's scrutiny. Her smile dims. She fidgets uncomfortably, silently berating herself for allowing someone to make her feel this way.

Then she felt a hand under her chin and suddenly she was staring into the most beautiful pair of hazel eyes. For once in her life, Rachel Berry was speechless, she couldn't even remember the list of appropriate conversation topics she had prepared and memorize last night to fill in awkward silences such as this. She felt all the blood rushed to her face.

"You are weird."

The Blonde finally said. Before Rachel could begin to feel hurt and slink off into the nearest girl's restroom to nurse her first fail attempt at making friends, the small diva notes a distinct lack of menace in the usually insulting statement. In fact, it sounded almost affectionate.

"You- I-" She sputters at the unexpected statement. She felt as if her face was on fire.

Before the brunette could fully form a sentence, the blonde handed her a small photograph.

"You dropped this." Quinn said simply.

Rachel looked down and squinted at the photo in her hand. She realized that it was a photo of her with her fathers during Hanukkah last year. It must've fallen out when she retrieved her notecards.

"They look as if they're in love with each other."

The small girl frowned at the photo. It was one of her favorite picture of her fathers. They each had an arm around her, but their gaze had lingered on each other. Rachel had to agree, they did look very much in love. However, thats still an odd observation for the blonde to make. The diva swung her head back up to voice her confusion, however, the puzzling blonde had already left.

And that was the first and only time Quinn had spoken to her for the duration of her freshman year in Mckinley High.

A/N: Chapter 2 coming soon. There is a very distinct possibility that this may become a faberittana...


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry it took so long! This is completely unbeta-ed. Tried to proof-read it myself but there's probably a lot of mistakes...

Brittany found herself hiding out in the auditorium one day during her lunch period. It was one of those rare days when neither Quinn nor her brunette counter part are present to help divert the focus of her many classmates. As the most approachable girl of the three popular cheerleaders, Brittany often gets bombarded by fellow classmates desperate for popularity. All clamoring for her attention, they come to her with words filled with insincerity and actions littered with ulterior motives. Your everyday brown-nosing, backstabbing bitches. Unable to cope with that level of inauthenticity for an extended amount of time without Quinn or Santana subtly running interference, Brittany chooses to hide.

The blonde was about to dig into the snack pack of extreme flavored gold fishes Quinn brought her this morning to placate the upset dancer for leaving her to the wolves during lunch hour when she heard the sound of the auditorium door slamming. Startled, the blonde dropped her deliciously cheesy snack and precious gold fishes came tumbling out of the newly opened bag and onto the floor. She stared forlornly at the fishes now down for count while briefly weighing the risk of eating the goldenly baked snack off the auditorium floor. After deciding against catching possible disease from eating off the floor that may or may not have been cleaned since the 70's, Brittany poked her head out from the orchestra pit (where she was hiding) to glare at the intruder.

The side door leading to the stage swung open and in walks the Rachel Berry complete in her usual argyle, Mary Janes and knee high sucks. The only thing different about the short girl is her demeanor. Her walk seems to lacks its usual pip and her beaming smile was absent from her face. In its place were slump shoulders and a defeated look.

Always been fond of the small brunette, Brittany felt her irritation melts into worry at the sight of the sad girl. She quietly settled back down on the old cheerio practice mats that she was previously resting on hoping to figure out what could be bothering the brunette.

She allowed her mind to drift over to that fateful day a year ago, when she first met the little brunette. The girl had approached her and Quinn with such a hopeful look in her eyes that made the taller blonde want to just the take the younger girl in her arms. She was SO small!

Brittany had always been taller than her other classmates. She had unusually large hands and feet all through out elementary school that other kids always made fun of. Then in middle school she started growing taller, she bumbled around, tripped over everything within 5 feet radius of her but her newly gained height matched her hands and feet. Soon she got used to her new height and once again flit about with the grace of a dancer. Junior high was also when boys discover that cooties doesn't exist and that girls can be pretty awesome (with the exception of Kurt). It was the birth of the "Puckasaurus." Her new found physique was a hit. All the boys were after her and all the girls looked on with envy.

But she never really quite got over the teasing growing up and continues to be conscious about the size of her feet, her hands and even her height, no matter how much Quinn and Santana tried to convince her otherwise. So now she has an unusual attraction to small things. Usually this fascination manifest itself in the forms of small furry animals, such as baby ducks. However, the first moment she laid her eyes on the small brunette with her incredibly doe-brown eyes (that reminds Brittany of Bambi), being pushed around by those big, mean kids, her protective instincts flared up. From that point on, the blonde had kept an eye out for the small girl, stepping in when the bullying becomes too intense. She knew that both Quinn and Santana are a bit baffled by her actions, but they too help keep an eye out for the brunette, albeit more subtly and indirectly.

Rachel had grown a lot in the last year. She is taller now, her body had also filled out in all the right places and she no longer resembles the scrawny little brunette that just last year, had whipped out a set of flashcards before carefully asking for Brittany's hand in friendship. She is still incredibly tiny but in a beautifully proportionate way.

Brittany looked carefully over the stage from her vantage point down in the orchestra pit. at the girl in question.

Rachel was just standing on stage with her eyes shut tight, a crease forming between her eyes brows. Frowning at the sign of obvious distress, Brittany had to resist the urge to hop on stage and cuddle with the girl until lunch is over, thus blowing her cover. However, it looked like a particularly vulnerable moment for the small girl and she had enough presence of mind to recognize that Rachel probably needs a moment alone. With no way to get out without making her presence know, she slumps back down onto her mat.

A couple moments later, she can hear the girl let out a loud sigh. SIlence. Then the muffled sounds of guitar strings being plucked began to float down into the orchestra pit.

There were some obvious signs of struggle as one wrong string after another were repeated picked, but the singer was not deterred. Soon a gentle melody emerged and Rachel began to sing.

_I was a little girl _

_Alone in my little world_

_Who dreamed of a little home for me_

Brittany sat up on her mat, straining to hear better.

It was _beautiful_.

It made her unbelievably happy, like when Santana kisses her hello in the morning or when her stomach do this funny little dance that it does when Quinn cuddles with her during a movie.

She was in awe.

She allowed Rachel's gentle voice to envelop her in a warm cocoon and soon her eyes started to droop and she slowly slid down to lay on the mat.

#########

Most people, of the less popular variety, learn very quickly in high school the art of being invisible.

But not Rachel Berry.

She seems to embody the concept of conspicuous-ness and her flair for dramatics as well as her down right refusal to stay wallowing in the shadow like some untalented chorus girl often attracts unwanted attention from the more popular, malicious variety.

She knows well from a young age that the act of bullying most likely stemmed from insecurity and unhappy home life. However sometimes, even knowing that doesn't take away the sting of ice chips being flung at her face at a daily basis.

Today is one of those days.

She was slushied while on her way to Algebra. Ambushed, right by the locker banks, she never had a chance. Looking down at her favorite owl sweater, now covered in cherry flavored slushies, she had to resist the urge to burst into tears on the spot. Instead, she calmly walks towards her locker got out her emergency slushie kit and head towards the girl's restroom. It is not until she was safely behind the restroom she allowed the tears to fall.

The moment the lunch bell rang, she made a bee line to the school auditorium, forgoing her daily Q&A session after class with her algebra teacher. She really didn't need any help, she's ahead of the lesson anyways. The only reason she does that everyday is because she believes that it is beneficial for her academic success to foster a good student/teacher relations. Life is all about connections and this is good practice for her if she ever want to break it into the limelight.

However, today she can't seem to muster up her normal enthusiasm for her education. Today Rachel, like the rest of her fellow classmate, could really care less about algebra. Besides, as the small diva made her way out of the door she could've swore she saw her algebra teacher sigh a small sigh of relief.

She reached the auditorium in record time. As the door swung shut behind her she was relief to find that the auditorium was empty, as usual, except for the grand piano standing stark still in the bright auditorium lighting. She made her way towards the stage, her foot steps echoing in the hollow space, her frustration and anger clearing with each step she took. Her heart calms as she stood, center stage.

This is her sanctuary. She is safe here. She took a deep breath, then let out a shuddering sigh. She can feel the anger drain out of her body, leaving her with a deep sense of sadness. Sadness for her inability to escape the trial and judgement of high school, the constant feeling of rejection. There's only so much she can take.

She is so tired.

She sags against the piano and slid slowly down on to the stage floor, leaning her face into the cool surface of the piano. That was when she notice the guitar sat leaning against the piano bench. She had half of mind to scold whoever left the instrument unguarded from theft and possible damage while the other half of her is simply delighted by the sight of the beloved string instrument.

She picked up the instrument and sat it in her lap. Her hand running across the sound box almost reverently. Then she strummed experimentally once, smiling at the gentle sound of the guitar. Satisfied that the instrument must've been tuned recently. Her hand moved up the neck of the guitar, fingers fumbled around on the fret board looking for the right chords, wincing as she hit the wrong notes. Finally, she seems to have got a handle on the chords. She practiced it a couple more time until her muscle memory begins to take over, then she began to sing.

_I was a little girl _

_Alone in my little world_

_Who dreamed of a little home for me_

_I played pretend between the trees and_

_fed my house guest bark and leaves_

_I laugh in my little bed of green_

Her eyes closed as she recall the words.

_I had a dream_

_that I could fly_

_from the highest swing_

_I had a dream_

She smile softly to herself at the sound of her voice echoing through out the auditorium. She remembers why she loved this place. Here, underneath the spotlight, is where she can hear herself the clearest.

Then she heard it. A quiet thud.

Startled, her eyes rips open and her fingers fumble with the rhythm, but she continues to play. This time, however, her eyes remains open, slowly scanning the auditorium. That was when she spot the top of some blonde hair, sticking out from the orchestra pit.

Her stomach drops as she make out the high pony tail required of Sylvester's Cheerios'. She keeps playing, keeping a weary eye out for the Cheerio (most likely a spy!) to make her move. So she waited and waited and waited. Then the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period and still no movement from her intruder.

She gently sit the guitar back against the piano and tip toed over to the edge of the orchestra pit to take a peek at her secret listener.

And there she was, fast asleep atop a pile of old cheerio practice mats.

It was Brittany.

Rachel let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. She had always liked Brittany. The tall blonde exudes a sense of sincerity and authenticity that is difficult to find amongst high school students. She is genuinely nice to everyone, from Jacob Ben Israel to even Karofsky. It takes a certain amount of confidence and security in oneself for someone to become that way and it seems to Rachel that the blonde had arrived to that level of maturity.

She relaxed her guard and smile down at the sleeping blonde. Brittany always had an air of child-like innocence about her when she was awake. Sleeping!Brittany however, made Rachel's heart tighten and her arms ache with emptiness.

She continues to watch over the sleeping blonde for a couple more blissful moment until the warning bell rang, alerting her that she is now late for class.

She was debating whether if she should wake the sleeping girl when Brittany's cell phone went off. Rachel quickly retreated before being seen and as she exit the auditorium door she could hear Brittany's muffled greeting.

_To be continued..._

_AN: Thanks for reading folks! Feedback most appreciated!_

_Next up. Santana and Quinn._


End file.
